One of my most anticipated entertainment releases of 2013 was the Sound City documentary and accompanying soundtrack. Both are amazing and I highly suggest watching and listening to both. Before getting into the finer points of the vinyl version of the sound track, here is a brief background on Sound City without giving too much away about the film, to fully appreciate both the documentary and soundtrack.

Sound City was a historic recording city in southern California, the valley to be exact. It opened in the late 60’s and sadly closed its doors in 2011. The studio became legendary because of the amazing sound it produced that could not be replicated anywhere else. You can equate the sound quality at Sound City when you think about all amazing albums that were recorded there. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ Damn The Torpedoes, Fleetwood Mac’s s/t album (their first with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks), Nirvana’s Nevermind, Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush, Dio’s Holy Diver, Blind Melon’s s/t album, Weezer’s Pinkerton, Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. Then there are the artists that chose to record there based off Sound City’s reputation and track record; Johnny Cash, Elton John, Pat Benatar, Santana, Fear, Metallica, Rick Springfield, Rage Against The Machine, Rancid, Nine Inch Nails, Elvis Costello, Bad Religion, Slipknot, Queens Of The Stone Age, Carl Perkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cheap Trick, Barry Manilow, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Buckingham And Nicks. Just to name a few.

When Sound City closed Dave Grohl bought the console, which was made by a legendary electronics/sound engineer and partly gets credit for what made Sound City Sound City. Grohl moved the console to his own studio and gathered a group of musicians to record songs using that console that would all be compiled into this soundtrack. Sound City: Real To Reel features 11 songs composed and performed by the Sound City Players, a super group of sorts formed by Grohl that features musicians like Paul McCartney, Steive Nicks, Lee Ving of Fear, Rick Springfield, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Joshau Homme and Alain Johannes of Queens Of The Stone Age, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, Taylor Hawkins and Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters, Pat Smear of Nirvana/Foo Fighters, Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, Tim Commerford of Rage Against The Machine, Chris Goss of Masters of Reality/Kyuss, Robert Levon Been of Black Revel Motorcycle Club and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

The soundtrack was released on CD and vinyl as well as digitally. The vinyl version was pressed as a double LP on 180 gram black vinyl, housed in a gatefold jacket. Also included are printed dust sleeves, which have the liner notes and photos from the studio printed on them. Even though these printed dust sleeves are included, the records come in plain poly lined paper dust sleeves. The jacket is very thick and well made, but it’s a tight fit getting everything inside the pockets. No word on how many copies were pressed, but expect several thousand if not the record staying in print for years.